Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Islamic double-standard

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Tishri 5770.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Increase Funding to Fight Heart Disease and Stroke” and “Upgrade Aid”.

Unusual personal religious activity:  Yesterday I successfully reassembled my sukkah.  Today I hope to properly decorate it with plastic fruit and CDs.  (The latter have a shiny side and reflect in a variety of colors when light bounces off of them.  Old AOL CDs work very nicely for this purpose, with two placed together with their shiny sides outside and their dull sides inside.)  I may also hang up some Indian corn as well.

Today’s topic:  “Some Holy Books Are More Equal Than Others”.  This is a succinct commentary (with links) on how Islam and the Qur’an are often treated in the West with a deference not accorded to other religions or religious texts.  This is not due to attacks on other religions not being considered offensive; people do take offense at their religion being treated shabbily.  Rather, most people protest in peaceful ways.  Muslims, on the other hand, get violent.  And that scares others into granting them an unfair amount of deference, such as treating desecration of the Qur’an as a hate crime.  While such behavior may not be religiously fallacious for Muslims, it is a double standard for non-Muslims.  If your belief system is not Islam, you do not have any reason to treat Muslims as better than anyone else (or if you do, you belief system is pretty weird).  The fact that someone may beat you up if offended (an implied appeal to force) does not make that person any more right or anyone else more wrong.

Aaron

No comments:

Post a Comment